Editing Conscientious objector (section)

===France===
[[File:Objecteurs.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Stamp created by the {{Lang|fr|Centre de défense des objecteurs de conscience}} (around 1936)]]
The creation of a legal status for conscientious objectors in France was the subject of a long struggle involving for instance or the much-publicised trials of Protestant activists [[Jacques Martin (pacifist)|Jacques Martin]], Philippe Vernier and Camille Rombault in 1932–1933<ref name = JPC>Jean-Paul Cahn, Françoise Knopper, Anne-Marie Saint-Gille, De la Guerre juste à la paix juste: Aspects confessionnels de la construction de la paix dans l'espace franco-allemand (XVIe-XXe siècle), Collection Histoire et civilisations, Presses Universitaires Septentrion, 2008, 313 pages, {{ISBN|9782757400388}}, p.168</ref> or the hunger strike of [[anarchist]] [[Louis Lecoin]] in 1962.

The legal status law was passed in December 1963, 43 years (and many prison sentences) after the first requests.

In 1983, a new law passed by socialist Interior Minister [[Pierre Joxe]] considerably improved this status, simplifying the conditions under which the status would be granted. Conscientious objectors were then free to choose an activity in the social realm where they would spend their civil service time. However, in order to avoid too many applications for civil service at the expense of the military, the duration of the civil service is however kept twice as long as the military service.

The effect of these laws was suspended in 2001 when compulsory military service was abolished in France. The special prison at Strasbourg for Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse to join any military, was also abolished.

Since 1986, the associations defending conscientious objection in France have chosen to celebrate their cause on 15 May.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wri-irg.org/fr/node/1394|title=15 mai – Journée internationale de l'objection de conscience – Internationale des Résistant(e)s à la Guerre|website=wri-irg.org|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815132422/http://www.wri-irg.org/fr/node/1394|archive-date=15 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>